Erin Peters

Drive just 50 miles north of Los Angeles, you’ll not only find sprawling farmland, beautiful beaches and gorgeous oak trees, but a county experiencing its craft beer hockey stick moment. Four to five years ago, you wouldn’t find many craft beer breweries in Ventura County. It’s now a full-fledged beer destination.

In May, Joby M. Yobe and the rest of the Barrelhouse 101 team will be celebrating their 6th Anniversary. The “OG” Ventura beer bar and restaurant has been educating Ventura on craft beer through their 107 taps. They rotate twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. When they opened, Surf Brewing, Island Brewing and Anacapa Brewing were the only local breweries.

“Forever, this was known as Corona, Coors Light territory. When we got rid of any Corona, Coors Light macro, people were pissed.”

Jobe even got flack for serving beers in the proper glassware.

“I’m not drinking beer out of a fucking tulip!”

Ojai Beverage Company opened in 2007, back when the available beers were Red Hook, Pyramid and Firestone DBA, to name a few. Jobe and his cousin, Jorge Alem, own OBC and often work together to offer great craft beers. And they typically will host classes or small brewery specific events monthly.

Concrete Jungle Brewing Project is a brewery and tasting room in Ventura on Market Street. The grand opening was October 14, 2017. Concrete Jungle bought the Surf Brewery facility. Surf Brewery was the first packaging craft microbrewery in Ventura County CA, when opened June 2011. Formerly located in Los Angeles, Concrete Jungle moved into the former Surf Brewery location and have expanded their beer style offerings.

Darryl Levi is a friend of mine that I asked to write an article for me in my blog, www.TheBeerGoddess.com. I sent him to the Orange County Beer Festival in 2010 and he got the bug for craft, which led him to homebrewing, then buying a bar in Camarillo. “Darryl’s Couch” was born.

Darryl’s Couch was the first craft beer pub in the county, having opened in Sept of 2012. Levi offers 11 taps including one nitro, focusing on designated craft as determined by the Brewers Association, which includes breweries like Firestone, Five Threads, Made West and Three Weavers. He’s currently holding an IPA competition every Wednesday with three single IPAs from local Ventura County breweries.

Enegren Brewing is not out to chase beer trends. Since 2011, the Moorpark brewery has been focusing on German style lagers. They were the second packaging brewery in Ventura County by just a month. Chris loves the style because of their versatility and complexity.

“I want to push the boundaries in craft beer and not just offer the same thing everyone else is doing.”

Enegren started homebrewing in 2014, as an engineering major at Loyala Marymont. Enegren took his knowledge about control systems and programming and built his own automated 15-barrel, European style homebrew system. Chris has installed brewing systems at Garage Project in New Zealand, Fremont Brewing in Seattle and Fall Brewing in San Diego, to name just a few. And he’s applied the best of his engineering and brewing knowledge in his own brewery. Their tanks are named after the breweries moms, wives and daughters. And their custom brewing system is named after a Viking shieldmaiden and ruler from what is now Norway. This ”Lagertha” will have produced a Maibock and single hop pilsner by the time this article is published. And all of their beers are brewed with natural carbonation. The smart brewery gets 100% of their carbonation through spunding. Enegren produced 2,000 barrels last year and will be installing a canning machine in mid-April.

Did you know that a “thread” is a term sometimes used when blending two or more beers together? Located on Via Colinas in Westlake Village, Five Threads Brewing Company has been brewing since October 2015. You’ll find various styles like Heidi, their Bavarian Hefeweizen, Red, a Nelson Red Rye IPA and High Gear, their Mocha Oatmeal Stout.

Fluid State is already making waves with their awesome selection of craft beer and craft, organic pizzas. Since May of 2017, the restaurant/beer bar has impressed locals and beach town visitors alike with their authentic offerings.

“We feel like there’s something to be said for having a business that’s based on friendships and relationships, not based on what is trendy. A lot of the beer that we have here tends to be – it just so happens to be breweries that are on the cutting edge – but that’s not the main reason we have them on tap. The main reason we have them on tap is because we have relationships with these guys. We’ve known them for years.”

Aaron Duncan and Jen Schwertman want to support those authentic breweries in the industry.

Some of the beers offered are the smaller, independent breweries that don’t yet distribute. Jen has been in the beer and bar world since the fall of 1992, having started at Wynkoop Brewing Company in Denver. Aaron started homebrewing about 15 years ago in Santa Cruz and then opened a craft centric restaurant in 2007. He then started working for Ninkasi Brewing, helping to launch Ninkasi down the coast from Santa Cruz to north Los Angeles, which eventually brought him to Santa Barbara. Jen and Aaron met at the Great American Beer Festival in 2010, and eventually joined forces to create Fluid State.

The redwood bar, Chicago made steakhouse barstools and the big horseshoe bar help make Fluid State casual, social and meaningful. You won’t find tv’s, but you’ll find a fantastic deck and 24 taps.

14 Cannons is a production brewery and showroom, which opened in October 2017. Located in Westlake Village, the brewery features nine taps with beers like Spice Island Chai Tea Brown Ale and Slippery Deck Imperial IPA.

Ladyface Alehouse is the first microbrewery in the Conejo Valley and produces award-winning Belgian, French and American style ales, on site. Since late 2009, they’ve been serving beautiful Biere de Garde’s like their 7.5% ABV Dérailleur®.

Try their divine Golden Farmhouse ale, Trébuchet®, which was created with Ladyface’s Chaparral Saison brewed with honey from bees foraging on the local mountain sage scrub habitat and then ages in California Sauvignon Blanc barrels with Lactobacillus for over a year. Their seasonally-inspired European bistro-style menu - featuring its ales in many recipes - is also not to be missed.

Leashless Brewing is an eight month old certified organic brewery located on Thompson Blvd. in a 1930s-era building. Their V-Town IPA shines with navel orange and mangos. Their Tri-Fin Tripel is a classic Trappist with hints of black pepper and fruity yeast giving off notes of citrus and apricot.

MadeWest Brewing Co. is run by Ventura natives, which shows through their community involvement and mindedness. Founded in 2014, in the heart of Ventura, you may find some exceptional beers like their On The Juice, a hazy double IPA loaded with Galaxy, Citra and Ekuanot hops or Prospect, a Vanilla Coffee Porter, dosed with whole Madagascar Vanilla beans and 100 lbs. of single origin coffee beans roasted by Prospect Coffee Roasters, also in Ventura.

Head over to Davy Jones' Locker where Brian Oliver has been serving quality beers since 2014. Poseidon Brewing Company has been serving tasty DIPA’s, Brown and Cascadian dark ales and Imperial Chocolate Oatmeal Stouts since 2014. They quickly lived up to their mantra, “Ales With Depth.”

Smoke Mountain is a boutique farm brewery located on top of Rincon Mountain, bordering Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The hops, barley, produce and herbs are all grown locally, on their farm. While they have no taproom, the beer club is popular among locals – which can be mailed or enjoyed at their “Pick Up Parties.” You may also find some distributed locally, by visiting their social media pages.

Tarantula Hill Brewery will be opening likely in two phases, with the brew-side of the building opening first – around October. They will start with festivals and select tastings. Around December, they will start serving not just the beer, but artisan pizzas and small batch ice-cream. Speaking of deliciousness, keep a look out for guest chef beer dinners, beer & ice-cream pairings and artisan coffee, all with the idea of pairing and enjoying together.

John Edney will be managing the restaurant, including the super-premium ice-cream. The first brewery in Thousand Oaks will appropriately be located on Thousand Oaks Blvd., exact location to be announced March 1st. The Thousand Oaks High School, class of ’91 natives want to incorporate the town as much as possible, using local ingredients and naming beers after local landmarks. The brewer – who’s yet to be revealed – has a over a decade of experience at one of the biggest breweries in the country. Ali and the team at Tarantula Hill know what craft beers the locals are gravitating to from serving them at Bottle & Pint, and so you likely see some IPAs, big stouts and some crisp lagers – among other styles.

Twisted Oak Tavern has made some awesome contributions to the VC beer scene since 2015, featuring beer from their in-house brewery, The LAB Brewing Co. Located in Agoura Hills, it was even voted best beer bar in California in 2016 by CraftBeer.com. Brewmaster, Roger Bott has been brewing beer for over 20 years and has taken the gold in two Casa Pacifica Beer Festivals. With a heavier focus on IPAs and Belgian ales, Twisted Oak features 32 taps showcasing around six of their own award-winning beer.

Topa Topa opened in June 2015 and has built their brewery on three core values; quality, craftsmanship and community spirit. They make beer that they like to drink. Jack is CEO & cofounder of Topa Topa, Kyle Thomson is CFO/COO and cofounder and cofounder Casey Harris brews their delicious brews. They typically have about 12-18 beers on tap, where 70% of production is Chief Peak IPA. Look for double IPAs, barrel aged beers and their “Solitude Series,” their single hop series, which is a taproom special that showcases a new hop every two months. And they’re doing so well, they opened their second taproom in Santa Barbara in October 2017. And look out for a third location in Ojai, adding a food element to the mix.

“As new breweries open, I think it’s human nature for people to think, ‘oh man, is that going to hurt your business?’ and we’ve just gotten busier and busier with every single brewery that’s opened. We love it…we think that spirit kinda’ sets us up for success.”

Jack also credits the newer craft beer drinkers in the area and their culinary curiosity.

“People just sort of skipped over Ventura and Santa Barbara area, and I think that’s changed now. We hope to change it with such a diverse, stylistically group of breweries.”

Their goals for 2018 are expanding, to simply make more beer and increase efficiency.

Many of the breweries in the county – including Topa Topa – have recently joined the Central Coast Brewers Guild, where Dyer sits on the board. The guild has expanded to include Ventura County, now with over 50 members. There is a Southcoast Chapter and the Northcoast Chapter.

Ventura Coast Brewing Company is proving that a taproom model with approachable beer, a nice patio in a great downtown location just works. They opened October 2016 and is selling a good number of lagers, hoppy pilsner and increasingly their new sours. Kyle thinks the beer culture has changed and grown even in just the past two-three years.

“I don’t think anyone really directly looks at anybody as a direct competitor. Even in distribution, where handles are getting a little bit tighter, it’s all culture growth at this point…the more the merrier,” said Kyle Thille, founder of VCBC.

Kyle and head brewer, Dan White (former head brewer at Smog City) wants to introduce new styles to the community, on an elevated and balanced level. They’ve started a tiered barrel program, separating those entry level sours and also offering wood-aged beers.

Westlake Brewing Company serves craft beers and live music on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Play on their old-school pinball machines and a regulation shuffle board table.

Topa Topa Brewing Company celebrated three years on June 9th. I spoke with owner and co-founder, Jack Dyer about their rapid growth and success.

EP: So tell me about celebrating three years. What have you done to make it such a success?

JD: It's been a very humbling and fun three years. That’s for sure. I think for us, just turning three and being able to grow with the community and really try and focus on that, supporting the community both with the craft beer community and our local nonprofits. It's just a really fun experience for us. It’s had some ups and downs. But we came to market really knowing who we are and what we, what we'd like to brew, what we like to make at the company, who we want to be. I think that's the difference. It's made us successful to just really, really, focus on making the highest quality product we can, doing things ourselves and at the end, supporting the community.

So we have three core values that we follow, to make every decision and they’re quality, craftsmanship and community spirit. So we try and instill that in everything that we do from the tap room to making beer to the projects and nonprofits that we support. I think that that's what's helped us be successful and grow to the point where now we've outgrown our facility and we're making, we're building a new, larger facility to be able to make some more beer. We have grown our company from three employees to, now we have 35. So it's a blessing. It's super fun.

EP: Go into more of who you are, you are the other founders. As far as beer trends, do you follow those?

JD: There’s three founders. It’s myself and Kyle Thompson and Casey Harris, who's our head brewer, but he also an owner in the company which, which, Kyle and I really think is important. And you know, we want him – Casey - invested financially in the success of the company. The key for us in really the three of us. I can't speak highly enough of my business partners. They truly are like two of the smartest guys I know. And you know, we've built a nice kind of family culture and that’s been really important and really key for us, having the three of them to be able to focus on. Casey handles pretty much the entirety of the beer program.

Kyle handles a lot of the finances and special projects and I'm able to do more sales and marketing. So having the three of us I think has also played into our our ability to grow somewhat quickly because we kind of all take our pieces of puzzle and just do ‘em, do what we do. So as far as beer trends and things, we almost pride ourselves on not being trendy. We make beers that we like to drink and that we think our customers will enjoy and that's always been a focus for us since we started. So it seemed to work so far. So yeah, we really focused on keeping all our beer super, super fresh, as well, which is a very important piece of the puzzle. And I think within the market, the craft market's growing so crazy.

That's probably the most fun aspect of it - is that there's so much great local fresh beer available now. So we just try to capitalize on that. In particular, our Chief Peek IPA, that’s our flagship. Just keep it as fresh as possible. So you pull up to a bar in Santa Barbara County or Ventura County, it’s probably less than three weeks old. That didn’t used to happen in the beer game. So, now that’s the reality.

EP: So what, what do you think your hardcore Topa Topa fans who've been there since the beginning would say about you guys?

JD: Well, I hope that they love us. We really appreciate our customers and we try and take the time and effort to really give them a great experience every time they have one of our beers, whether having one at an account and a retail partner or at one of our tap rooms – we really want them to feel welcomed and at home and give them a space where they can come and converse and talk about beer and really engage with their community.

I like to think that, you know, our hardcore customers, and partners don’t just like us, they love us. We love them right back. I think a lot of our customers that have heard of over the years, they value our consistency that we're consistently putting out a high quality product. We don't run out of our flagship beers, you know. So I think that's a big thing that they really enjoy. We have great customers, regulars, that that's been a fun thing that - quite frankly I didn't really expect to have as many regulars. We know them by name. They’re part of the Topa family as well. So that’s been a fun thing as well, something that I didn't really anticipate when we undertook this starting a brewery thing.

EP: Right. Awesome. What’s been the most surprising thing in the past three years?

JD: Just been the pace at which we've been able to grow. We wrote the business plan based on kind of a set pace that we thought we'd be able to sell beer and grow our tasting room model. But the fact that we're working on our third location and that we're close to 5,000 barrels of production is, is pretty wild. But that was like year seven, eight, nine of our business plan and here we are in year three and we’re already there. So that's the most surprising thing and just the general support that we got from the community and to see the overall growth of Ventura County and Santa Barbara County and craft beer in general. That's the most surprising thing for me for sure. It's wonderful to see.

EP: And when do you guys have going on in July?

JD: Community spirit is always the forefront. We just dropped a collaboration beer with our friends at El Segundo Brewing Company. A group that, always, we just love those guys. We love their beer. They came to us. They really wanted to do something to benefit the Thomas fire. They are down in L.A. and they wanted to do something to help. So, we did a beer, it’s called Hat’s Off. We’ll probably have a few fun events. We already launched the beer down in L.A., but it's now hitting stores in the area, in Ventura and Santa Barbara County. But we're planning some fun event at Fluid State. That’s going to be one of them for sure. We don't have the date locked down yet, but we're working on that right now. We brewed in down in El Segundo. El Segundo’s committed to a dollar of every beer going to two different nonprofits that help Thomas fire recovery efforts. Jen and Aaron have already committed that they’ll be donating some proceeds from that night…It will be in the next few weeks. Otherwise, we’re working hard, keeping our tasting rooms busy. I'm keeping up with our production. We're currently, we have two construction projects going on at Topa Topa right now. We have a third one and we're building a larger production facility so we're a little busy with that.

EP: Which leads me to my next related question, goals for the next three years?

JD: So we've always loved the taproom model, so are adding a couple more taprooms. That Ojai one should be open by late summer and that'll be a really fun project. We're partnering with a really great food provider in the region as well. So we'll have some fun food to pair with the beer there, we think it will be a nice enhancement. And the production facility is going to enable us to make beer to satisfy our network of draft accounts and also we're finally going to be able to get into the traditional packaging, cans. So that's going to be really exciting to see our beer getting into that format so that people can enjoy it, because currently right now, if you want a Chief Peak, find a draft account in Ventura or Santa Barbara County. So we're excited to do that. That'll be kind of what we focus on here for the next little bit.

We hope to have packaging by sometime before the end of the year. A lot of it has to do with timelines and permits, all the fun stuff that goes with building a new brewery. But yeah, we've already bought a canning line, so it's going to happen. We’re really excited to do it and provide some more beers out in the market as well.

Apparently we really only distribute Chief Peak, so we're excited to get a few more options out there for people. We make a lot of great beers, but a lot of people just know us for Chief Peak.

EP: Speaking of Chief Peak, congratulations on the Casa Pacifica win.

JD: Yeah, that was a fun win. We don't really measure ourselves by medals. But it’s always fun to be voted in by your peers. People tasting our beer. People get consistently surprised that Chief Peak is such a flagship beer, people are actually surprised when they're doing a blind tasting. It’s a really great beer. Casey and our team did a great job with that recipe. It's always so, so freaking fresh. It’s difference maker when you drink it, when you drink a week old IPA, that's pretty nice.

EP: What are your thoughts on the county now and how it's grown and versus three or five years ago.

JD: It's pretty amazing. I was just talking about this last night with Jason, the head brewer here at Allagash, where we're at. Just, the landscape and the diversity and the styles of beer is - in our region - is really fun and to see every business model working, I think that's the most compelling part is that whether you're a nano brewer, big production, distribution from day one. All these models are working.

That's a really fun thing to see. I find myself talking about the guys at Enegren a lot because I love that ]they're focusing on these German, real clean beer styles. You know, [you have] the guys at Casa Agria and their sour program. It's just really cool to see people succeeding and focusing on quality.

So that's the number one thing. I think that no longer is Ventura County a skip over spot when people pass through. You gotta’ stop and try the beers. There’s incredible diversity right here. And all those guys are friends of ours. They're good guys and they make good beer and they’re really committed to making the best product they can. We love it and when we decided to open in Ventura County, it was something we really focused on and really wanted to build a greater sense of community amongst the brewers and even like with our friends, with our retail accounts. Just really focusing on getting things going.

Press Release May 18, 2018:

Tarantula Hill Brewing Company is proud to announce that Mike Richmond will be our Brewmaster.

Mike spent the last 10 years honing his skils at Stone Brewing in San Diego under the tutelage of legendary Brewmaster, Mitch Steele. We are so excited to have a brewmaster of this caliber join the family.

As an added bonus, Mike is also locally grown, born and raised in Newbury Park.

Mike Richmond’s Bio:

Mike was born in Thousand Oaks in 1980. After graduating from Newbury Park High School in 1998 he attended UCSB and graduated in 2002 with a degree in Biological Sciences. After a few years in Santa Barbara working as an Agricultural Technician for the State of California, he moved to Washington DC where he supervised DC’s largest 24/7 Veterinary Hospital for 6 years. During this time is when began home brewing. Mike’s love of brewing grew so much that he moved to Davis, CA in 2009 to complete the Master Brewing Program at UCD where he successfully passed the Institute of Brewing & Distilling, Diploma in Brewing Examination.

Weeks after completion of the program, Mike landed a position working under Master brewer Mitch Steele at Stone Brewing in San Diego, where he was for nearly 10 years.

Mike took full advantage of his time at Stone to learn how to run every piece of brewing equipment and to gain valuable managerial & operational experience. As Brewing Manager of a brewery the magnitude of Stone, the knowledge and experience he gained was invaluable for his next venture.

In May 2018, Mike headed back to his hometown in the Conejo Valley to become the Brewmaster for the first Thousand Oaks brewery, Tarantula Hill Brewing Company.

Quote from Mike:

“Hello Thousand Oaks and Newbury Park. Tarantula Hill Brewing Co. has been in planning for quite some time and I’m beyond excited to finally let our community and friends know that I’ll be returning with my fiancé Katie, as Brewmaster of our first brewery. This is an amazing ‘first of its kind’ project in T.O. created and run by a phenomenal group of local people. It’s great to be back in my hometown! I was born and raised here, graduated from Newbury Park High School (Go Panthers!) and my parents still live here. It feels great to have this opportunity to come back to my

roots. Along with our own families and the Tarantula Hill family we simply can’t wait to share this vision and hang out with some great craft beers together. See you soon. Cheers!” -Mike

ESCONDIDO, CA (February 12, 2018) – Today Stone Brewing filed suit to defend its iconic STONE® brand against one of the world’s largest beer conglomerates, MillerCoors. Stone, known for being the antithesis to “Big Beer,” has long waved a flag of bold character, individualism and independence. The suit alleges that MillerCoors is trying to rebrand its Colorado Rockies-themed “Keystone” beer as “STONE.” The craft beer pioneer feels that it has no choice but to combat MillerCoors’ aggressive marketing moves, which abandon Keystone’s own heritage by falsely associating with the one true STONE®.

“Keystone’s rebranding is no accident,” said Dominic Engels, Stone Brewing CEO. “MillerCoors tried to register our name years ago and was rejected. Now its marketing team is making 30-pack boxes stacked high with nothing but the word ‘STONE’ visible. Same for Keystone’s social media, which almost uniformly has dropped the ‘Key.’ We will not stand for this kind of overtly and aggressively deceptive advertising. Frankly, MillerCoor should be ashamed.”

The Complaint alleges federal and state causes of action for unfair competition, trademark infringement and related claims. “For two decades our team and our fans together have given depth and meaning to the Stone brand,” expressed Greg Koch, Stone Brewing executive chairman & co-founder. “Our fans have come to trust us to deliver consistently fresh, high quality beer. They trust that we’ll do so in a way that’s ethical and betters our communities, our planet and the entirety of craft beer. By deliberately creating confusion in the marketplace, MillerCoors is threatening not only our legacy, but the ability for beer drinkers everywhere to make informed purchasing decisions.”

Never one to miss an opportunity to poke fun at Big Beer and its consumers, Koch added with a laugh “We all know Keystone is specifically designed to be as inexpensive, flavorless and watery as possible. We can’t have potential Stone drinkers thinking we make a *shudder* light beer. Or for our fans to think we sold out. MillerCoors needs to stop marketing its stuff using our good name.”

Twice named as the “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine, Stone Brewing continues to gain devotees, solidifying its commitment never to sell out to Big Beer. Meanwhile, according to Nielsen, the beer industry’s Domestic Premium category dipped four percent in 2017, equating to a $12.5 billion loss. Says Greg Koch, “No wonder MillerCoors is trying to misappropriate what it could not otherwise accomplish by itself.”

Founded by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner in 1996, the groundbreaking San Diego-based Stone Brewing is the 9th largest craft brewer in the United States. Recognized as an award-winning, industry leader, Stone has been listed on the Inc. 500 | 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies list 12 times, has been called the “All-time Top Brewery on Planet Earth” by BeerAdvocate magazine twice. The multifaceted company is the first American craft brewer to independently build, own and operate their own brewery in Europe (Berlin, Germany), and also opened a production brewery in Richmond, Virginia in 2016. Known for its bold, flavorful and largely hop-centric beers, Stone has earned a reputation for brewing outstanding, unique beers while maintaining an unwavering commitment to sustainability, business ethics, philanthropy and the art of brewing…and pledging never, ever, sell out to the man. For more information on Stone Brewing, please visit stonebrewing.com or the company’s social media sites: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

Boulder, Colo., October 16, 2017—It’s official: The Brewers Association (BA), the not-for-profit organization that represents America’s small and independent brewers, has announced the craft brewing community’s intent to Take Craft Back from Big Beer. The #TakeCraftBack campaign—launched at TakeCraftBack.com—seeks to crowdsource the funds to buy Anheuser-Busch InBev, the international conglomerate that has been busy acquiring small breweries across the country.

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ATLANTA – August 1, 2017 – Construction is hopping along at New Realm Brewing, the craft beer project on Atlanta’s Beltline with partners Carey Falcone, Bob Powers and Mitch Steele anticipating their fall opening at 550 Somerset Terrace NE, in a new development named Common Ground. To showcase their vision and develop the concept, the founding trio hired the Atlanta-based firm ai3, working closely with firm partner Dan Maas. “ai3 is looking forward to seeing New Realm Brewing Company open their doors and pour their first beer,” said Dan Maas ai3 partner. “We are excited for our clients who have been working extremely hard to realize their vision.”

Throughout the industrial space a color palette of rich earthy tones will be highlighted by subtle pops of deep green. Reclaimed hickory mixed with railroad timbers, raw steel and oil-rubbed bronze will carry out the rustic and craft-driven décor made complete with industrial style lighting. Artistic touches such as hand-carved wooden hop art, rusted steel New Realm logo, stone Radagast heads, and more will blend into the design. Guests can choose to enjoy their visit in a main dining room, at an interior bar, a lower level patio, an outdoor beltline beer garden, or a rooftop patio. The space will also have a private dining room on the lower level and a second level tasting room/tour center, both of which will house special events like weddings, private parties and corporate meetings. All told, the New Realm facility will seat a total of 400 guests, who will enjoy several views looking directly into the brewery overlooking New Realm’s 25hl, four vessel brewhouse and 50hl tank farm from Krones Steinecker, and Mitch Steele’s brewing team in action. It is expected that the facility will be able to produce approximately 20,000 barrels at full production and will have the capability to keg, bottle and can.

Construction of New Realm Brewery is being handled by Choate Construction Company, another Atlanta-based partner which is 100% employee owned. “Choate is thrilled to partner with New Realm Brewery, ai3 and Third & Urban,” said Brian Bollins, project executive at Choate Construction Company. “These guys are ‘best in class’ professionals in their respective fields; we are excited to transform the former Western Electric Building into a destination that the team and the local community will be proud of.”

About New Realm Brewing:

Atlanta-based New Realm Brewing Co. (NRBC) is an American craft brewery-in-planning in the Southeastern, US. Started in 2016 by co-founders Carey Falcone, Bob Powers and Mitch Steele, the team is building their first production facility on Atlanta’s Beltline in a 20,000-square foot space that will feature a 25hl brewhouse, a 3,000-sf restaurant, with rooftop patio and beer garden. Brewing is anticipated to begin in late summer 2017, with a grand opening scheduled for fall 2017. Mitch Steele, Renaissance man and brewing legend, is known for producing hop heavy IPA’s. Mitch co-authored a book IPA: Brewing Techniques, Recipes and the Evolution of India Pale Ale in 2012 and the Brewers Association awarded him a trophy for innovation in craft brewing in 2014. New Realm Brewing Co. core principles are quality, creativity, authenticity, perfection, and customer centricity. They are focused on positively impacting the community in which they live/work, a commitment to environmental sustainability, supporting the local, independent craft community and the art & science of great craft brewing. NRBC is headquartered in Atlanta, GA. For more information, please visit www.newrealmbrewing.com.

What’s just as important as making good craft beer? Making sure it’s available to as many people as possible.

The three-tier system was established after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 and not much has changed. An organization called Liberation Distribution (LibDib) is offering what it calls the first three-tier compliant web-based platform. LibDib creates an opportunity where makers and buyers can work directly together, thus giving restaurants, bars and retailers access to a larger variety of boutique craft libations.

Launched on March 22, the San Jose based company has over 250 accounts in California so far, and have moved onto New York.

I spoke with Cheryl Murphy, LibDib’s founder and CEO:

What prompted you to start LibDib?

It’s really crazy, just all of the industry consolidation that’s happening across all three, ya know, wine, beer and spirits; on the distributor side, that’s kind of what got me into doing what I’m doing here. I spent 20 years in the wine business; managing wholesalers…could never get their share of mind. And understandably so, they, especially when consolidation happens, they gotta’ pay attention to where their money is coming from and my winery was not big enough to really matter.

So, every year I would make numbers or a distributor of mine would go out of business or they’d get acquired and then we would be at the bottom of the wrung at a giant distributor. It was like pulling teeth and I kind of had a little too much to drink one night when I was with my dad, who was my boss at the time. I was working at our family’s winery.

And I said, ‘ya know, I cannot – you can’t do this based on the industry’s conditions. How can we be successful?’

When you take control of your own destiny, as a sales person, as a brand, is when you can be successful. But the problem is when you have a distributor, in between is beholden to larger companies, you can often, even though go out and get your own places and get your own sales, sometimes the distributor is beholden to other people so it’s not going to be top of mind to keep those placements or take those orders.

My whole goal is how can we facilitate legal three tier sales, I want to make sure that’s really important, we are part of the three tier system…But how can we enable small breweries, wineries, distilleries to do business with other small businesses, grocery stores, bars, restaurants, where there’s thousands and thousands of them, without a giant company in-between.

The way my model works is that we built a two-sided web platform for the maker, what we call our supplier, where they can go in, put all their materials online, sales materials, POS, videos, social media links, everything about their brand…then they can buy right then and there.

As a distributor, we collect the money. We pay the maker. We pay the taxes. We do all the things we have to do as a distributor. We take half the margin. So, that’s anywhere from 15-20% of whatever product you’re talking about. And the maker is responsible for delivery.

It’s been really interesting so far. A couple of the breweries that we have, they were self-distribution. But now we’ve kind of brought them back into the three-tier system because we’re taking care of a lot of the things that they don’t want to do.

They want to go out and sell their brand. They want to make their beer. But they don’t want to collect. And they don’t want to invoice. And they don’t want to do all the things that are just a pain to do. So, we’re trying to make it easier for those guys, and we’re making it easier for the account side, cause the accounts like to carry small production craft products. But they don’t want to write 100 checks every month….

Small craft products don’t necessarily fit with the distribution, the current model of distributors. They’re not going to make enough money on your brand, so why would they care?

In working with us, you can have that direct fulfillment, but then still have the backend of the distributor with one invoice and one check.

So, in essence, they are saving money and able to get into more locations easier without having to do the self-distribution work.

Exactly. A lot of breweries want to fulfill because they want to have that complete control, over the temperature, over everything. But they don’t necessarily want to do all the other stuff that the distributor does.

How many craft breweries are on your system?

Well so far, there’s some compliant stuff, so it takes longer, but so far we have two breweries that are local around here. We have one from Alaska coming on…

What’s your biggest group so far? Would it be restaurants, or bars, or retailers?

So far, it’s bars and bottle shops. We’re working on a couple big deals. There’s a stadium that’s interested in working with us and having us get 15 or 20 taps, just totally unique, small craft beer stuff…

Have distribution companies taken notice yet?

Yes! I was very nervous about the wine and spirits folks, if they not be happy about this. But for the most part, they’ve been pretty accepting. They recognize that with this consolidation, that they need – their bread and butter is their bigger suppliers. And some of these folks, some of these little guys take away their time and effort from where they really make their money, so they like the idea maybe I can be like a incubator model for them…so far so good…the way that I’m starting to see trends happening on the spirits side too, and I think it will come with wine eventually, out of all of these giant companies, that they’re buying craft breweries. They know they need that to keep their market share. It’s going to happen in spirits too…

How do you think you’ll ultimately affect the big beer buyouts?

There’s so many small companies that need help with their distribution. I’m going after what I call the long tail of the industry. The people that couldn’t get distribution, even if they wanted it…if you want to pick up and leave, you can go, pick up and leave.

This is a totally different vertical, but do you consider yourself to be in any way similar to AirBnB?

In terms of posting your things once, and having people from all over the world, and having hundreds of thousands of people be able to see it, yes. It’s definitely like the AirBNB of alcohol distribution. It’s funny, VC’s around here will tell us, don’t tell us you’re the Airbnb of anything. But it gives people an idea. You can go in, you post your product, buyers from our legal market can see it and purchase it legally.

During Coachella in mid-April, I tasted some delicious craft beer not only in the ‘Craft Beer Barn’, but also in the ‘Rare Beer Bar,’ headed by Beer Belly’s Jimmy Han. He even stashed away some Wicked Weed Marina, a blonde sour ale aged in wine barrels with over one pound per gallon of peaches and apricots.

This brewery is now one of 20+ craft breweries that are now owned by larger, corporate brewers. The Brewers Association defines a craft brewer as small, independent and traditional – with less than 25 percent ownership by a non-craft brewer.

I spoke to Mitch Steele, former brewmaster of Stone Brewing and current co-founder, brewmaster, and COO of New Realm Brewing, as well as Julia Herz, Brewers Association craft beer program director, about why it’s important to know what you’re drinking.

I know there are a lot of feelings on both sides as far as craft breweries “selling out.” What are your thoughts in how it affects the craft beer industry?

JH: Big picture, even though it’s not happening in mass, right? 99% of the 5,300 plus breweries - and that’s our 2016 data there – but 99% of those are still independent and small. But as the purchases continue to happen… the slowing down of purchases was where we thought this was headed and Department of Justice issued a consent degree…and over the purchases in 2015 and 2016 – Devil’s Backbone [Brewing Company] being a key one, that was approved with some changes made from the DOJ. That’s the consent degree. Now, when Karbach came along, that was a separate investigation that then still got approved. So, as these are continuing to happen, not in mass, but as these are continuing to happen, independent breweries are absolutely threatened by the chance to already have access to market.

The more that the large global brewers become a one-stop shop, for brands and beer styles, to both distributors and retailers, the harder it is, number one to make the marketplace fair, number two, for beer lovers to really get the choice that many beer lovers desire.

MS: Well, I think it’s really dangerous what’s going on right now, honestly. The problem is, is that the majority of the beer drinking public don’t know or don’t care about the business practices of large brewers and how it impacts small brewers. I think that’s really where the danger is, cuz, ya know, when a brewery is buying tap space, which is technically illegal, and small breweries can’t - number one, most small breweries won’t do it because they don’t want to do something that’s against the law. And they can’t afford to play that game either. They’re not swimming in cash like some of these big brewers are, really puts the small brewers at a disadvantage. I think that the concern is that nobody really knows that except for small brewers. When somebody’s whose kind of a casual craft beer fan walks into a bar, and sees all these beers that are craft, yet they’re all brewed at Anheiser Busch Brewery, most of the time, they’re not going to register it’s not a small, independent brewer. You see this kind of thing with other kinds of businesses as well. It’s hitting where it hurts for craft. When these brewers can potentially come in and sell a keg of beer for 50-60% of what a small craft brewer can afford to sell their keg of beer at, it really is damaging the ability of the craft brewers to sell their beer.

I know Lagunitas isn’t your typical, small craft brewery, because of the size and how long they’ve been around, I would guess that this sell out would affect it even more. Correct?

JH: Yeah. And then you also add Ballast Point in the mix with Constellation purchase. So, if you look at sales data, sales data is not definitive, sales data from IRI more so reflect more popular selling styles of beer, because that’s what is going to go up in those scans at grocery store registers, not brewpubs down the street. Thousands of breweries frankly are not in the scan data. But if you look at scan data, and the trends of the top selling styles, you’re seeing less and less over time, the independent craft brewers brands at retail, in this case in off premise retail being in the top of the mix.

Where you surprised by the Wicked Weed buyout?

JH: Well, based on hearing that we’re almost done with Karbach, yes. But based on knowing that any business is going to make moves and plays to be available and it looks like the efforts to localize their beer presence is on. So, in that respect, I am not surprised. Cause they continue to make regional purchases in key beer markets of the country. Four Peaks, Arizona, Blue Point in New York, Los Angeles for Golden Road. These are very geographically, strategic made procurements and we also have to talk in terms of whatever article you publish, the deal has not gone through. It’s an announcement from AB Inbev that they are moving to make a partnership and bringing Wicked Weed into their brand portfolio, but it is not a closed or done deal. It’s still subject to review.

MS: Well, that surprised me. I’d go so far to say that it shocked me. I didn’t see that one coming. I thought they were in it for the long haul. And I know Luke and Walt pretty well and I’ve brewed with them before and we’ve hung out a lot. I didn’t see this one coming from them. Now, I don’t know their ownership very well, and the people that actually funded that brewery for the most part. I know Luke and Walt are part owners of that, but I don’t know what percentage they own. But, I know that they had some big time investors in that brewery, and they’ve been mostly their decision, but who knows. Ya’ know, nobody really knows. But, yeah, it shocked me. Disappointed me. Some of these are not a big surprise. You hear through the grapevine that some of these newer breweries that are building themselves to sell and want to sell eventually and they’re just trying to get their business to a point to where they’re attractive to a large brewer. There are other breweries that have gone down this road that you never saw it coming. There are people that have said, ‘Wicked Weed was built to sell.’ But I never looked at it that way, knowing the guys and knowing their beers. I thought they were in it for the long haul. Ya’ know, the whole thing is, somebody comes and offers you a ridiculous amount of money, who’s to say you’re wrong for taking that and setting up your family for generations? You can’t really fault it, I just wish it didn’t happen.

Right. The big difference of say Golden Road, Ballast Point and Lagunitas – from what I hear, people are more sympathetic – they don’t see the Ballast Point sell as the same as Golden Road. What are your thoughts?

JH: I don’t know. I feel like there’s been social on Ballast lately. It just depends – it’s an interesting one. The acquisition, no matter who you’re talking about, have struck different nerves at different times, but I think the reasons that you’re getting so much play this week, I think potentially reaching a tipping point to some of the beer lovers that I’m seeing. I’ve even seen one comment – ‘the straw that broke the back.’ It’s getting more than any beer lovers expected.

MS: Yeah, and people didn’t really see that one [Ballast Point] coming. The word on the street was that Ballast Point was going to do something. Stock offering, things like that. But I think the other difference with Ballast Point is the purchase number was released along with the news, and so when people see $1 billion, they’re like, ‘ok, who are we to say they shouldn’t have done that.’

Do you sympathize with any of these craft breweries after they explain on social media? “We had to do this because of distribution.” “The beer will stay the same.” What do you think of their rebuttals and explanations?

JH: Well, bottom line, any brewery, any business - let’s talk about it that way – has the right to be able to make any business moves that they want. But when 99% of the 5,300 breweries are still independent and you’ve got a 180 plus regional craft brewers that are doing it independently and you have breweries on the record saying, “we will never sell, we will always be independent,” then there are examples in the marketplace showing that you can do it without selling out to big beer…Sam Calagione of Dogfish has been very vocal about it. There was a USA Today piece on Oskar Blues.

MS: Yeah. I don’t know if you know this, but I worked with Budweiser for 14 years. This was back in the 1990s. People still looked at Budweiser as the evil empire, but I dealt with the reaction from craft brewers all the time. Negative reaction and people who say, ‘it’s lousy beer, lousy quality beer.’ I’d get on my soap box and say, ‘ya know, you may not like it, but don’t ever talk negative about the quality because the people who brew this beer are as passionate about it and you are about yours.’ But it’s a different company now. I certainly get the backlash, I can relate to it because I dealt with it for a long time myself. I came from craft, and then I went to Budweiser and was there quite a while…it’s tough if you’re a craft brewer and in that position and all of a sudden you become the enemy. I think it’s a very uncomfortable feeling for most of them because the craft brewing business is so built on community and comradery. Now all of sudden you’re not in the club anymore. That’s a hard thing to swallow, especially when you’ve got so many friends in the business…and people that don’t have ownership in the brewery that sell, and have no say in it, and they’re just kind of, there when it happens, those are the people that I feel really bad for, because they had no say.

The whole access to ingredients thing I think is a little bit overplayed. I think if you’re a growing craft brewer, there are enough suppliers out there, if you work it hard enough you can get what you need, with a few exceptions. For example, Galaxy hops. Nobody can get Galaxy hops right now. Can a big brewer go in and get Galaxy hops? I don’t know if they can. I don’t know if they’re available to them. I think that’s overplayed, just a little bit. I think really the big advantage for a small brewer joining forces with a big brewer is the access to the resources, the technical resources, so they can understand what’s happening in the brewing process - be it really complex lab equipment or whatever. And then the distribution access is huge, that’s really, the financial end of it, expansion and that kind of thing. Those are the things that really matter.

Does distribution and those laws have anything to do with this and why they are selling?

JH: Yes, as soon as you sell, you get instant access to things that those 99% of the 5,300 breweries don’t have. You get into a system in the network for better economies of scale, for purchasing raw materials and ingredients and you get instant distribution that cannot be matched and is unparalleled and frankly, is not necessarily <pauses>

Fair?

JH: It’s leading towards not thinking it’s fair…the number of distributors over time continues to wane. Even though we have 5,300 plus breweries, today, there are only 1,000 plus active distributors. Five hundred plus of those are controlled by AB Inbev. Miller Coors has several hundred as well. Distributors are amazing partners to beer, but it’s a matter of priority. How do they decide what they’re going to sell? And when you’re an AB house – that’s a common term for distributors – their first priority is likely those AB brands.

MS: The whole South African hop thing I think is way overblown. That’s not what people should be getting angry about Anheuser-Busch about, because Anheuser-Busch owns hop farms in several areas and they don’t sell those to any craft brewers. I don’t think this is a move on their part to really limit the accessibility of hops to craft brewers like people are making it out. I think it’s just they have a use for those hops, and they don’t have a surplus. They don’t have a surplus anymore. That’s coming from people I know that work at AB, that I trust. I just don’t think it was politically motivated. I think it was just part of their business. There are so many other things that they’re doing. Going in and buying tap handles in bars, cleaning out all the independent brewers and filling the bars with some of these brewery’s beers that they’ve purchased. They’re opening taprooms and brewpubs all over the country with that are branded with Goose or 10 Barrel or Goldenroad, or whatever. I think those are the kind of things, and they pass those off as craft. I think that’s where the real problem is and the real danger is...be honest about what you’re brewery is and what it isn’t. If you’re passing yourself off to somebody who’s a small, independent blogger, or beer writer, or brewery, or whatever, and you’re completely backed by Anheuser-Busch, you gotta’ have fully discloser there.

Buellton, California— The winning streak continues for Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co. After bringing home 17 medals from the 2016 San Diego and Los Angeles International Beer Competitions—8 and 9 respectively—the local California brewery has done it again.